(New Post) Who Needs Facebook

Sometimes Facebook seems more like Drama Book and that can drive me crazy…if I let it.

Like so many other things in life, Facebook will be what you let it be.

I’ve been offline since Friday afternoon around two o’clock when my laptop decided to eat my files and drift into a coma with neither a burp or thank you. I’ve been using my limited tech skills on it without success until I can get to the computer store Monday. It remains to be seen whether anything in it will be salvageable or not. Sigh.

Thankfully, the last manuscript had been backed up AND sent to my editor. Can you say HALLELUJAH?!

Sadly, however, included in the missing files would be what I had written this past week, the content that I need to tape Monday morning and send to my affiliates for another week’s worth of radio segments. Sigh. With time a-wasting, I’ve just finished reaching into the All Things Southern archives (via my desktop) to snare some words for that taping. Among other things, I found a great old story I told once about a belle named Mama Ruth and her friend, John Henry. That led me to Facebook to look up my friend who originally told me the story, so we could laugh about it…again. That’s the best thing about a good story, you know? It just gets better in the retelling.

What I found on John’s Facebook wall was a post about his latest health struggle. I didn’t realize things were so difficult for him right now, but I was encouraged to see that John was responding to it with his customary good humor. I’m glad I found that status update so I can pray for him. Thank you, Facebook.

While there, I also discovered that another good friend lost her sister to cancer yesterday afternoon. Charlotte knew the day was coming, we all did, but I didn’t know her baby sis had slipped into Father’s arms yesterday afternoon. No doubt, our mutual friends thought I already knew. I didn’t, but I needed to. Thank you, Facebook.

And yet, Facebook had more than bad news waiting for me. Along with some sweet messages from friends and readers, I also found some laughs and inspiration, and in today’s broken world, don’t we all need more of those?

Meet Shellie

Shellie Rushing Tomlinson is the Jesus loving author, speaker, and radio host known as The Belle of All Things Southern. Jeff Foxworthy endorsed her last book, Sue Ellen’s Girl Ain’t Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy, calling it "Laugh Out Loud Funny!"